//------------------------------// // The past is just a memory. // Story: The Salvation // by TheGreatAndPowerfulWriter //------------------------------// It was morning, the small group of ponies had already departed. Twilight and Starfall had avoided eye-contact with each other, noone actualy noticed. At the moment nopony was talking. They were just walking/flying. And then it came "I'm bored." the cyan coated pony sighed. Everybody moaned except Pinkie Pie. "AAH!" "Not again!" "Grmm.." "Pinkie how do you do that?!!" Meteor Clash exclaimed. "Well i never lose a game!!" Pinkie was hopping as usual. "..Neither do you lose any bit.." Meteor Clash said while giving her 5 bits. "Hey YOU suggested to do bets with bits!" Applejack said giving Pinkie 5 bits aswell, the rest of the group just followed her lead. "If i keep going like this i won't have enough to buy myself a freakin hayshake!" Thunderbolt groaned. "I quit this game!" the rest of the group agreed. It was quit for a while, until.. "OKAY!! ONE MORE TIME!" Meteor Clash was desperate to win atleast ONCE against Pinkie Pie. "What's ur bet then?" Pinkie Pie said a little triumphant. "less than 20 seconds!" "Okay it's on!" 21 seconds later "I'm bored." Rainbow Dash sighed again. "OH FOR CELESTIA'S SAKE!!" Meteor Clash yelled to the sky. Pinkie Pie only chuckled while recieving another 5 bits. Everyone was getting more and more annoyed by Rainbow Dash, to be honest they were all bored, but hearing it time after time from Rainbow Dash just makes it more ..boring. Rainbow Dash wasn't flying anymore, she was just hanging. She is happy that she's out of that prison but going at this speed, they could've just ripped her wings of instead of going this slow. Atleast that's how she looks at this. "OKAY ENOUGH! I don't care what you think but i'm SO going to fly!" Rainbow Dash yelled jumping in front of Twilight, Twilight was a little startled, she was thinking about...other things. "Um okay??" Twilight said a little confused "Wait so you don't have problems if i fly?" "No?" "Not a single problem?" "Well..just don't get to many attention and you can fly, why would you even think you can't fly high in the sky?" "..." Rainbow Dash didn't realy know why she was thinking that anyways. "WAIT! So i can fly to?!!" Thunderbolt jumped in. "..Yes?" Twilight said getting tired of this. Rainbow and Thunder looked at eachother then immediatly rocketed into the sky. Nopony cared what they were doing up there, it wasn't realy that rare that Thunderbolt nor Rainbow Dash simply flew around in the sky doing loops, tricks... One hour and a half of walking and flying. Rainbow Dash and Thunderbolt landed right next to eachother. "Man you realy won't make it easy for me will you?" Thunderbolt said apprently very tired not to mention how much he sweat. "You really think i would make it easy for anyone?" Rainbow Dash said, she on the other hand was less tired than Thunderbolt. "Did ah miss somethin'?" Applejack came in between the two pegasi. "Oh i was just teaching Thunderbolt some tricks, we also raced a few times. I of course won 5 of the 7 times." Rainbow Dash said with her overconfident voice. Somepony apparently found it pretty funny. "Oh dear Celestia! Thunderbolt, you always said YOU were the best flyer now did you?!" Meteor Clash said trying not to laugh to hard. Thunderbolt looked at him with an evil eye. Unsurprisingly Meteor immediatly calmed down. "Anyways, we're pretty hungry." Rainbow Dash said. "Hmm, what? Oh yeah i think it's time to eat..." Twilight said after being interrupted out of her toughts. She wasn't realy focused today, she was constantly thinking about something, or may i say, somepony. "Uhh yeah let's make our camp and eat something..." Starfall said, he was in the same situation like Twilight. The 13 travellers set up a their camp. "Ooo!! Let me make the meal, please please please please pleaaaaasee!!" Pinkie Pie said hopping as usually. "Yea yea but how are you going to do that wiiithh.. 13 apples and 3 berries??" Rainbow Dash said while handing the food. "I'm Pinkie Pie!! You know i can make anything with anything!" Rainbow Dash had to admit it, Pinkie Pie knew how to cook but still.. The pink pony hopped with the food into a tent. Not much later a delicious smell was coming from the tent. "Wait, how was she able to make a fire in such a little tent without setting it on fire?" Applejack noticed. Everyone looked at her all with the same look on their faces meaning one thing :"It's Pinkie Pie you know?!" "WHO'S READY TO EAT?!" Pinkie Pie yelled pulling a delicious looking pie out of the tent. Everyone was astonished at the first look and were confused, but after a second tought it wasn't all that surprising, it was Pinkie Pie afterall. The pie was very big and was white, with a pink frosting on the edges. Put a wedding couple on top of it and it was a weddingpie. One by one they took a piece of the (delicious) pie. And one by one they enjoyed it. "Siriously Pinkie how do you do that?!" Rainbow Dash said with a full mouth. "THAT'S a Pinkie secret! Only me and Meteor here knows it!" Pinkie said with a full mouth aswell. "Meteor Clash knows your secret?!" Applejack said while choking on a piece of pie. "Well yeah what's so wrong about it?" "Darling, you have never told your secret to anyone!" Rarity said, she was the only one eating with a fork. "I know right?! But i had this weird Pinkie sense that told me to!" Twilight shuddered a little, the rest of the group just sighed. Meanwhile at The Rebellion. "Private Night! What are you doing here?!" the officer yelled to a pegasus wich was standing next to his bed in the barracks. 'Private Night' didn't respond, he just kept staring to his bed. "I asked you something there private!" "And it is the last thing that you ask me." he responded. The officer wanted to yell again but got shut by a hoof coming out of nowhere, the officer got bucked in the face and then got strapped around his legs. "Good work, lieutenant Firestorm." 'private Night' said. Night himself was a darkblue coated pegasus, he had desame mane as Starfall except the colors were darkblue and turquoise, he had green eyes. The pony he was talking to 'lieutenant Firestorm' was a black-coated stallion with a mane combed to the back with spikes, it was black and red, just like his short tail. "Please Starlight, just call me by name." "Okay okay Fireblaze. Anyways, how's the situation with you?" "Well i have gathered 18 other ponies to join us, so we're now with.. 103 ponies." "Excellent, i think it's almost time we make our strike." "So where are we going to attack again?" "At the north, 5 miles of here, close to the border of the Griffin Kingdom." "Oh, by the way i was wondering why there?" "Well, it's a weak base and we need our suplies, if we are going to make a rebellion against the .. uhh.. Rebellion than we need alot of weapons, armor,.. Plus we might get some ponies who want to join us." "Whatever you say Starlight. Now what about those officers, i think this one was the last one." Fireblaze looked at the angry strapped pony trying to free himself. "Just keep him with the rest in the locker there." Starlight pointed at a door. Fireblaze pulled him to the door and opened it revealing many strapped up ponies, all officers, Fireblaze put the angry stallion in the locker and closed it. "Honestly these officers are stupid that they notice they are dissapearing one by one." Fireblaze joked. "I know, i guess The Rebellion choses for quantity instead of quality." Starlight responded. Back to the travellers. "Um darling, i was just wondering." Rarity asked. The group had already eaten and was 'full'. "You told us that, you recieved intel about us?" "Yeah what about it?" Starfall replied "Well that intel was from your ex-boss." "Oh.. yeah... You want to know what happened, do you?" "Of course if you want to tell us , darling." Starfall looked to his stallion friends. "I think we have to tell them, we're stuck with them anyways." Thunderbolt said. The mares didn't feel offended, they knew it was only for teasing. "Okay then.. It was a normal day at our office in the HQ, our boss wanted us to come to his ... 'office'. FLASHBACK "Why do we have to come anyways?" Thunderbolt asked to Starfall. "I told you already, i don't know." Starfall said while stopping in front of a 2 huge doors, they were closed by a thick and huge wooden plank put horizontaly through 2 short 'tubes' that were attached to each gate so that you can only open it by removing the large wooden plank, the gate was guarded by 2 ponies with a golden armor each one of them standing at a side. "Starfall Night leader of The Elite Squad. Our boss called us." The 2 ponies looked at eachother for a second and then nodded, one of them removed the plank and put it aside, the other one opened the door. Starfall and his friends entered a huge room, it was mainly used to do speeches ..and other stuff , it had a small podium at the far end of the room, other than that it wasn't much special, no windows, only lights, and it had only one way out. The doors closed behind them. On the small podium a darkred coated earthpony was standing there with a golden armor, he was obviously the boss of the organization. The Elite Squad stopped 5 meters away from him and bowed. "I have called you here to tell you something very important." the darkred coated pony said, he had a low voice, not as low as the one of Stonehoof. They stopped bowing and were ready to hear it. "Princess Luna and Celestia are dead." the boss said in short. This was almost a punch to the face for the group of stallions standing in front of him. They were speechless, afterall, they made an oath to be loyal to the royal family. "I know this is going to change everything including Equestria, it won't take long before Equestria knows." the darkred stallion continued. "Equestria will fall apart without the princesses. And it is our duty to prevent that. That's why i made a simple plan. WE take over Equestria." "What?! But that's.. that's not our duty!! Our duty is to protect it, not to rule it!" Starfall said still shocked. "Because Celestia nor Luna have any sons or daughters, we don't have a choice." "Yes we do! The Elements of Harmony were the closest to the princesses, the Equestrians would agree with us if we made them the rulers of Equestria!" Goodwill said while standing next to Starfall. "The Elements are total strangers and don't have any.. experience." "Who cares about experience?!" Thunderbolt also stood next to Starfall. "Yeah, for once i agree with Thunderbolt, it would only be right to let them have control over Equestria!" Meteor Clash said following the lead of Goodwill and Thunderbolt. "I am the boss of you, remember that! Besides, you know how many power and wealth we would have?" the boss said getting angry. "Boss or not! It's to THEM to choose what happens to Equestria! We don't give anything about money!" Stronghoof said while standing next to Thunderbolt and stomping his hoof to the ground hard. "YOU DON'T CHOOSE WHAT I WILL DO OR WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO EQUESTRIA!!" the darkredcoated stallion now said angry. "I HAVE THE MOST CONTROL OF EQUESTRIA RIGHT NOW!!" "No, you are only boss of our organization, you have no power over Equestria. And if you try to conquer Equestria by force, we quit." Shade said without showing any emotion, he was standing next to Goodwill now. "Very well. If i can't have you as my allies, then ...you are my enemies." the boss said now cooled down. "GUARDS!" he said while turning his back to The Elite Squad and walk away through a secret door. The huge doors opened revealing a whole army of hunderds of pegasi, earthponies and unicorns. "Son of a..." "Oh my." "Grm.." "Oh no he didn't!" "..." "Damn.." They all had they're own reactions. They all turned to the army standing at the doors, ready to fight, everypony of that army had a golden armor. "Agh, he expected us to refuse! This was a trap!" Starfall said. "We... have to fight." "Fight?!! Okay we have fight worse but if we succeed to defeat them, how are we going to get away?!" Thunderbolt said tensing all his muscles. "Well we can't stay here, we have to try atleast!" Goodwill said. "In that case, Starfall, any plans?" Shade asked. "Uh..Stronghoof you attack the earthponies and unicorns, Goodwill support him with your magic. Meteor Clash just do what your good at. Thunderbolt attack all the pegasi, just buck then retreat do this over and over again, try not to get hit, i will help you with that, and Shade attack them from behind." Starfall said while staring at the huge army standing 50 meters away from them not moving a bit. "With knife?" Shade asked. "When necessary." Starfall replied, it rarely happened but it looked like Shade was laughing a little. "Oh and if anyone gets hurt, tell me, we can make a tactical retreat when necessary." Starfall continued. Everyone nodded, they still didn't lose the army out of their sight. "Ready?" Starfall said turning his headmike on, he had it on his head all the time. "Fire-3 is ready!" "Hammer-9 is ready to buck." "Peacemaker-8 to!" "Thunder-6 is ready to rock!" "Shadow-5 is ready when your ready." "HEAVEN OR HELL!!" Starfall now yelled. The army and the small group of stallions charged onto eachother. Stonehoof was the first one to make contact with the enemies, he instantly bucked somepony in the face, he had a small green forcefield surrounding him, obviously from Goodwill. Thunderbolt did the same thing only in mid-air, followed by Starfall. Meteor Clash crashed in the middle of the army hitting a few earth ponies and unicorns, he bucked a few ponies and then took off again. Shade changed almost like a shadow and went through the army without anyone to notice, when he got right at the end, he started bucking them and vanishing again. They all kept repeating this pattern only to be hit a few times, but they still had their armor so they took less damage. Headbutt after headbutt, buck after buck, crash after crash,... The fight kept continueing, the army was getting smaller and smaller. Not a single pony got killed actualy, they just got injured by bruises, broken legs. Luckily there wasn't any blood shed, there were only unconscious ponies on the ground, some other ponies were brought back to be taken care of, especially the ones that faced Stonehoof. For The Elite Squad on the other hand, their endurance was almost unlimited, it might sound weird but they pretty much beated a whole pony army. Only 30% of the original army was left over, the rest was laying unconscious on the ground. For the 6 stallions the situation wasn't much better. "Star-2, i don't think i can hold on this longer!" Meteor Clash yelled in his mike while recovering from another buck, in the air. "Star-2, i know i can do alot but i have my limi- AGH!!" Thunderbolt said, he got hit by someone. "Star-2, my magic is getting..empty, i'm feeling a little drained at the moment." "Erhh.. Okay everyone regroup on me!" Starfall said, you could see a small amount of panic in his voice, he was running out of ideas. Starfall landed on a 'free' spot, the others standed in a circle around him, soon they were surrounded by angry ponies. "So.. any other plans??" Thunderbolt said focusing on a pegasus, the one that bucked him. Starfall was thinking, he made a plan in his head and was testing every situation, everything that could happen. No matter what plan it was, it still wasn't easy to escape from this position. Lucky or not, he had a plan. "I stay here and you guys flee." Starfall said calm. "Wait, WHAT?!!" Meteor Clash yelled almost hearable for the ponies surrounding them. "*sigh* Look.. There is no chance we can get out of here all together! Atleast one of us has to stay here and distract them, and it's my job to protect you at all cost, including my life." Starfall said still calm. "But Starfall.. What would we be without you? You know this isn't the best plan you ever made!" Goodwill said, in panic, just as rare as Shade's laugh. "Look, i've been many years on this team and i am proud about our achievements, weather you like it or not i shall stay here." "Starfall you've gone nuts! Without you we would just be 5 random ponies bucking other ponies!" Thunderbolt said a little angry. "I will stay, you must go now!" "Starfall, please.." Shade said. "Go now!" "Starfall.." "THAT'S AN ORDER!!!" Starfall commanded. The group didn't know what to do, leave their friend there and flee or atleast try to survive together with him. "I SAID THAT'S AN ORDER!!!!!!" Starfall was now angry. For a second the group looked at eachother, immediatly after that they began to charge through the wall of ponies surrounding them, they were running to the doors, wich were still opened. Surprisingly noone of the pony army was really bothered by the sudden attack of 5 stallions, as a matter of fact they felt more confident, Starfall was actualy their main target, they all knew what he was capable of. Tears were forming in Thunderbolts eyes as he flew along his friends, aswell did the rest have tears in their eyes. But with Thunderbolt, the feeling was the strongest. It might sound strange but Thunderbolt had the best 'relation' with Starfall and vice versa. Thunderbolt grew up alone, no brothers,no sisters. Only his mother and father, but he had to admit it.. There were better parents in Equestria (it might sound weird). He didn't have alot of friends, instead of have some fun with friends, he was training for pretty much no reason. When he joined Starfall (he was the second one being part of The Elite Squad), he experienced something that he never had before. Friendship. He was happy being with Starfall, having fun, hang out together. For the first time in his life he had a friend, a true friend. Thunderbolt never wanted to admit that but Starfall knew about it and didn't really bother, since then Starfall and Thunderbolt were BFF's. Of course Thunderbolt was still a good friend for the others. Noone knew about this friendship except Starfall and Thunderbolt. But today he has to see how his friend is going to sacrifice himself just to save the others, and all he can do is flee. When the group reached the doors they looked back at their leader. With tears in their eyes, they saluted. Starfall saluted aswell. The 'wall' of ponies 'closed', they couldn't see Starfall anymore. They went through the door. The whole building was one hay of a maze. Luckily they only needed to go through a long hallway of 100 meter to get to the (only) exit. Red lights were flashing all over the building, alarms were ringing. The exit was closing. Without saying anything, Thunderbolt dashed up there and kept the gate from going down. The others slipped underneath through the gate, Thunderbolt jumped out of it. They were rolling of a hill, afterall the HQ was placed inside a hill. Starfall on the meantime took off and flew around, doing manoeuvres, speed up, slow down. Anything that could avoid them to hit him or chase his team. Sometimes he had to buck someone, and sometimes he got hit. Things were going as planned. Then he heard that the door closed. "Now it's time for my escape..If i'm ever going to escape." Starfall flew in the highest corner of the whole room. The enemy pegasi did aswell. Immediatly he turned and flew through the army, they were confused, was he really trying to escape now? Yes! Starfall aimed for the doors who were still open. He landed behind the doors and closed them with the wooden plank, right after that he heard a few thuds against the door. They began to buck the door now. At this moment, he had a limited time before they were going to break the door. He will have to destroy the exitdoor. Starfall rested for a second, he was tired as hay. He looked at the gate, it was around 10 cm thick and made of metal. "I could try to buck it but i won't have enough time..I will need some more power, like explosives, but where will he get them?" He tought. Where the hay is he going to find explosives in a secret building with special trained ponies? "..." He went downstaires, there was a supply room with lots of weapons, explosives,...Starfall opened the door, revealing a huge arsenal of explosives. He picked up 10 bars of sticky explosives. Before he went away, he stopped and looked back. "He asked for it.." Starfall picked one of the explosives and put it on 2 minutes. He went back upstaires to the doors and put all ten explosives on the gate. "Here goes nothing!" Right after that he activated the explosives while standing behind a wall. The hallways filled with dust, when the dust was gone Starfall could see the gate, it was almost gone, but still closed. Only now he could notice that the wooden plank was breaking. Starfall was in panic and started bucking with all his power. One minute passed already. The gate was almost open now. The plank was almost broken. "Man how did i get myself into this situation?!" He had no time anymore to destroy the gates, he is going to take a huge risk now. He walked 10 meters back. 20 seconds. He readied all his muscles, readied his wings, he gathered al his energy. 15 seconds. He took a deep breath. 10 seconds. The plank broke. douzens of ponies were charging onto him. 5 seconds. Starfall ran to the still closed gate. 4 seconds. 5 meters away. 3 seconds. 2 meters. 2 seconds. He rapidly lowered his head, he headbutted the gate. 1 second. He got through the gate, now he was flying into the air. 0. Starfall was pushed away by a huge explosion behind him. He felt something cut in his right side, around the chest, but it didn't bother. The only thing that mattered now was that he needed to go as far away as possible. Starfall didn't notice but he started lowering, the only energy he had was willpower, the will to live. The last thing he wanted is dying when he got so far, most ponies would've given up at the point Starfall was surrounded, well MOST ponies would. He crashed onto the ground, he could barely move, he could barely think. Last thing he saw was a yellow flash landing next to him and yelling : "STARFALL!!". "So yeah then i woke up with my friends.. And you know..." Starfall told his past like it was nothing but a memory. "And you know?!! You tell us how you fought a whole army, destroyed a whole building, like you don't give a damn!" Rainbow Dash yelled angry, lucky for her, she expected a hit on her shoulder and evaded it. "What? Should i brag about it? Like Thunderbolt?" "HEY!!" Thunderbolt yelled. "Besides, i still got this scar." Starfall said ignoring Thunderbolt. Starfall put of his armor revealing a scar, it didn't look serious though, but it surely wasn't small. "Aw!" the 6 mares said putting their hooves in front of their eyes. "Coooool!!" Spike had to admire the scar. Starfall put on his armor again, he was kind of ashamed by the scar. "Hey wait, if you blew up the whole building, where is your ex-boss now?" Twilight asked. "We don't know but i think he fled aswell did the rest of the ponies who were working there, right at the moment we had that conversation, how they did that, we have no idea." Goodwill said wisely. "And guess who's the boss of The Rebellion?" Thunderbolt said. "OH NO HE DIDN'T!" Pinkie Pie yelled. "Yes, i know..And that's how we came here!" Starfall said. "Anyways.. Let's eat, i'm getting hungry." The group stopped, they made a fire and sat around it, just like camping. Starfall was relieved, he never EVER told the story whole over to someone els, but he knew he could trust them. "Especially Twi.. Ah buck! I really need to forget her! No place for romance in battle!" Starfall tought by himself.